The invention relates generally to a device and system for bodily waste collection and drainage.
Currently, patients dealing with urinary incontinence and that are catheter users tend to fall into one the following categories: 1) patients that use self-intermittent catheters where no urine collection or drainage bags are necessary; 2) patients with indwelling or Foley catheters who rely on some type of drainage/urine collection bag; and 3) male patients who wear an external or condom catheter (or sheath catheter) that also require a urine drainage bag or collection system. Patients, male or female, that have to rely on some form of collection or drainage bag are faced with a number of challenges such as portability of such a collection bag without creating wardrobe issues and ease of drainage of the collection bag, especially in public restrooms, just to name a few.
The storage or collection bags currently provided usually attach to the body, customarily to the leg or thigh, by one or two straps, and is connected to either the indwelling catheter or the sheath/condom catheter (or catheter tip) portion by a plastic tube. One challenge is that, as urine collects in the storage bag, its increased weight sometimes causes the connections to disengage or the condom/internal catheter to be pulled loose from the male penis or from the female's urethra. Another challenge is that there are various sources of potential leakage, i.e., at any of the connection points between the collection bag and an interconnection tube between the bag and the indwelling catheter or seal leaks in the collection bag due to a pressure spike. The result being frequent spillage, leaking, soiling, and embarrassment to the user. Another challenge is that this ungainly arrangement is a barrier to many normal activities, such as running, aerobics, and light physical work.
Further problems relate to the emptying of the bag of urine, as well with the attachment of the storage bag to the leg or thigh. Either the user has to undress in order to empty the bag, or he has to wear trousers loosely-fitting enough to allow a user to roll up the trouser leg to get at it. Both methods are cumbersome and require the user to take much longer to use a toilet or urinal than is normal. Moreover, if a man has to drain the storage bag in a public urinal, he is faced with an embarrassing situation. Another disadvantage is that there is insufficient support for the storage or collection bag beyond the straps fitted around the leg, which are both tight and uncomfortable yet insecure (i.e., the straps tended to restrict blood circulation yet could not always prevent the storage unit from slipping down the leg). Also, the storage bag prevents the user from wearing ordinary, closely-fitted street clothes, because the collection bag outline could show through and because the trouser leg could not be rolled up high enough to allow the user to access the bag. The drain valve on these storage bags also presents problems, whether the pull-out plug or the screw-off cap. Men with shaky or arthritic hands or with neurologic pathologies (MS, Parkinson's disease, stroke, etc.) might have difficulty replacing a plug or screwing a cap off and on. Some users also tended to get urine on their hands while draining the device.
Further, the disabled have particular difficulty in handling such collection bags. The problems of the various types of drainage catheters are so great that some patients are unable to cope with them. Hence, in these instances the only alternative is to wear bulky and embarrassing adult diapers or to refuse to go out in public at all. For all these reasons, the urine-incontinent man or woman is often severely handicapped in both his economic and social life.
In one prior art device, Cawood discloses in U.S. Pat. No. 4,449,971 an abdominally located urine collection bag that is connected to a catheter protruding up from the patient's urethra (in this case, the patient's penis), such that the patient's urine needs to travel upwards against gravity to be deposited in the abdominally located collection bag. As taught therein, this collection bag system depends on the patient's bladder detrusor muscle tone and intraperitoneal pressures exerted upon the bladder of the catheterized ambulatory patient so as to cause urine to flow from the bladder to a level as high as 10 centimeters or more above the distal tip of the catheter within the patient. The collection bag is carried by a waistband or belt and is worn over the patient's abdomen and the bag disclosed in the Cawood patent has a short valve-equipped drain tube that extends downwardly from the bag when the contents are to be drained and that may be folded upwardly and inserted into a pocket provided by the bag when the drain tube is not in use. A challenge with the Cawood system is that not all patients have sufficient bladder strength to force their urine up against gravity to an abdominally located collection bag (especially if a patient has a neurogenic bladder, which provides minimal to no bladder contractions). Further, this collection bag will require more loose fitting clothes to accommodate the device and can create leakage issues if the user has to bend over at the waist just to pick something up.
Cawood in U.S. Pat. No. 6,471,680 also discloses an abdominally-worn collection bag that includes a long coiled extension tube connected to the drain tube and drain tube connector to allow the patient to drain the urine contents directly into a toilet bowl as shown in the '680 patent. The extension tube has the challenge of having to be uncoiled and then re-coiled and strapped into the front face of this collection bag when trying to empty the urine bag. This requires manual dexterity in managing the tube, partially undressing to manage the long tube and some hygienic challenges in cleaning the tube after each use and ensuring that it is completely empty before recoiling.
Therefore, there is a need for a urine or body waste collection and drainage device and system that is simple to use and facilitates ease of drainage for the mobile and active patient without all of the complexities of the aforementioned prior art devices.